~ let me tell you a story

Cold day, dog stuff

It’s cold. Not quite cold enough to freeze, but cold enough to make your breath turn white as you walk. The air bites and it’s wet. The sun is hidden behind a uniform layer of gray clouds. The dogs sit on the steps when I put them out and whine to come back inside. Auguste, who has yet to learn not to scratch at the door, stands up on his hind legs and scrabbles at the door.
This is what I do. I say ‘No!’ and I dump a glass of water on him. He stares at me in shock and then turns to look at Rusty, who is sitting a few feet away with an “I told you so dummy” expression on her face. Rusty does not scratch on the door. She learned with the water method, and I’m pretty sure Auguste will learn too.
When guests come over, Auguste launches himself at them like a mini torpedo. That too will pass. I catch his collar quite firmly and make him sit. He’s only 4 months old, and so far he knows how to sit and wait for me to put his food dish down, to go lie in his bed and stay, and to sit with Rusty in her bed and stay (at least for five minutes, lol). He comes when I call him, which annoys Rusty, because Auguste runs when I call him. Rusty is slow. She likes to amble. But Auguste dashes toward me when I call his name and Rusty is always afraid she may be missing some treat, so she heaves a great sigh and breaks into a trot.
Auguste is shiny clean this evening. I took him upstairs and gave him a proper bath. After the muddy walk he was caked with dirt and the water was black. He was very upset with the bath and pretended to be terrified.
Both dogs were patient today while I worked. They love their walk, but some days I just don’t have the time (thus the shutting them outside in the garden.) Luckily my daughter and her friend offered to take them out, so they were quite happy and tired this evening. (After his bath Auguste went into his bed and fell asleep. I can just see the tip of his tail from here.)
I apologise for the boring doggy post, but aside from working on my book and washing the dog, I did absolutely nothing today at all!

5 thoughts on “Cold day, dog stuff”

My girls want a dog so badly, but we rent and I’m already so busy…~sigh~lolYeah, sometimes it’s nice to sit back and relax, after all that’s what kids are good for, lol, doing errands.(Hope things went well for you when writing your book)

Dog baths are fun. When I was a kid I used to wash our German Shepherd in our plastic kiddie pool, lol. We rent too – so I can’t let the dogs scratch the door! My daughter is good at errands – her favorite is going to buy the eggs at the farm because she loves to go see the cows in the stables.

I love your doggie posts. I can so appreciate trying to train them to sit and stay, etc. And even an older dog will show you he CAN learn new tricks when there’s a puppy around getting all kinds of extra “training” attention. LOL! 😉

I also love your doggie posts. I always had a dog for a companion/pet up until I had to give my Auntie custody of my terri-poodle Sapphy when I went to live in Greece. Now I can’t own a dog as I live in an apartment and travel a lot. But your stories remind me of my doggie days. Now I have the bird who is amusing and pesky and also needs to be taught a bit of bird discipline!